Pressurized tank sprayers are often utilized to dispense low viscosity liquids. The typical pressure sprayer consists of a tank or container for holding a solution, a hand pump, and a spray wand with a discharge valve. In operation, a person partially fills the tank with a solution leaving a portion of the tank unfilled. Next, the user attaches a hand pump to the tank. As the user strokes the hand pump, the pump mechanism forces air from outside the tank into the portion of the tank unoccupied by the solution, causing the air pressure in the tank to become greater than the atmospheric pressure outside of the tank. When a user triggers the discharge valve on the spray wand, the increased pressure within the tank propels the solution from the tank through a nozzle that terminates the spray wand. The pressure sprayer will continue to propel solution from the tank until the air pressure in the tank approximately equals the atmospheric pressure outside the tank. Then the user must again actuate the pump to redevelop the increased pressure within the tank.
Manufacturers commonly sell liquids or solutes that a user may wish to dispense with a pressure sprayer, in a concentrated or condensed form. Thus, the user is often required to measure a specific quantity of the product prior to adding the product to the pressure sprayer. To assist users, some products are sold with an accompanying measuring device. However, some users might find these measuring devices unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.
Often users require only a small quantity of a concentrated solute; therefore, the measuring devices are correspondingly small. The weight of a large container of solute may make pouring into a small measuring device difficult for some users. Additionally, users often desire a precise quantity of the solute. In response, manufacturers may provide indicia on the accompanying measuring device to indicate the quantity of the measured solute; however, these indicia are often inaccurate and difficult to read. Finally, some users might misplace the measuring cup supplied by the solute manufacturer, in which case the user may attempt to use a measuring device previously used in measuring foodstuffs, or, even worse, the user may attempt to estimate the amount of product introduced to the pressure sprayer tank. Accordingly, it would be advantages to provide a tank sprayer providing users with the ability to safely and conveniently add solute to the tank. It would also be desirable if the tank sprayer facilitated the addition of precise amounts of solute to the tank.